Electrical conductors encased in a metal jacket are used in many different environments, for example, in the gas turbine power plant manufacture. Such conductors are used for transmitting electrical signals obtained by electrically transforming measured values of pressures and temperatures. These values must be continuously measured on power plant structural components such as compressors, combustion chambers, and/or turbines or the like. The measured signals are needed for testing and designing purposes as well as for closed and open loop control purposes. Values measured for control purposes include relevant operational variables and parameters.
Repair and maintenance work in which structural power plant components are partially dismantled require frequently a separation of the above mentioned jacketed conductors. On the other hand, upon reassembly of the components the same conductors hence must again be electrically and mechanically connected for providing the required uninterrupted conductors. Such reconnection is also known as splicing. Such splicing may also become necessary when sections of the conductor become useless due to an unintended entry of moisture. In that case, the damaged conductor sections including their metal jackets are removed and a new length of conductor with its metal jacket is spliced into the circuit.
Conventional splicing frequently requires a substantial length of time for its performance and a constructional investment for performing the splicing. This is true, especially when several separate electric conductors of different polarities must be connected exactly and in a durable manner, whereby the electrical and mechanical connection must be fail-safe and without any electrical grounding or rather unintended short-circuiting.
In one splicing concept a sleeve made of Teflon (RTM) is applied to the encased conductor ends by shrinking the sleeve onto these ends. This type of splicing is not suitable because it is not sufficiently temperature resistant. Such splices are required to withstand temperatures exceeding about 260.degree. C. for prolonged periods of time and temperatures of about 350.degree. C. for short durations.
Another concept splices two jacketed conductors by means of an insulating high temperature cement used to form a base to which the conductor ends are cemented. This procedure requires an enormous amount of time because each of several different cement layers requires at least one hour of curing time at a temperature of about 180.degree. C. Another disadvantage of this approach is seen in that the curing temperature, or rather the curing heat, must be provided by an external heat source with the added disadvantage that the applied heat is quickly dissipated through the metal jackets. The dissipated heat in turn could heat neighboring structural components of the power plant in an unpermissible manner.